Gore and More could be an apt sub-title for Nevada Ballet Theatre's staging of Bruce Steivel's Dracula. There were no tongue-in-cheek Halloween horrors in this production: It went for throats as well as wrists, and before the carnage ended, half the cast had stakes pounded into their chests. In one questionable scene, a thirsty vampire lured a child into a crypt and put her legs in a coffin before the tot was rescued.
The storyline was so confusing that many in the audience kept referring to their playbills in an attempt to figure things out. That didn't always help because what was read wasn't always what was seen. Any dance plot should be able to be followed, at least partly, through the onstage action. It is, after all, a visual art.
The first act, according to the program notes, jumped from 15th century Romania to 19th century England, involved a battle to save Christianity, the suicide of Count Dracula's wife Mina, her reincarnation, a host of other characters and more. Bless those program notes.
Not all the choreography reached the high level of originality and quality usually attained by Steivel. Still, there were pleasing duets and trios, and the ritualistic dances for Dracula's minions were imaginative and appropriately bizarre. In an especially touching duet, Dracula was torn between bloodlust and his desire to spare his beloved Mina from vampirism.
One of the ballet's eeriest and most compelling scenes was set at the count's castle where, emerging through the surface of a bed, three slithering female vampires seduce Johnathan , Mina's fiancé, while drawing his blood. The femme fatales were so fetching as they relieved the lad of his bodily fluids that his fate might have been envied had Dracula not taken over.
Nourished, the count goes in search of Mina, but her friend Lucy catches his eye and his ivories. Her paroxysms while in Dracula's embrace bring the episode to an erotic climax. The unabashed sensuality was riveting but unnecessarily sanguinary.
The ballet ended with a gruesome free-for-all between vampires and Mina's friends, who having staked their claim to victory, depart, leaving behind a coffin that slowly opened to reveal Dracula still alive and armed to the teeth.
Baris Erhan, in the title role, did his best with material designed to portray the count as a grimacing, street-fighting stud rather than a sinister, suave aristocrat. Technically, he was a whirlwind of powerful leaps and turns, but his transitions between steps frequently lacked polish.
The troupe's acting was not on a par with its dancing, which was generally good. On opening night, the more persuasive performances came from Racheal Hummel (a vampire), Elena Shokhina (Mina) and Tess Hooley (Lucy). Zeb Nole's dancing, as Johnathan, was elegant but his acting stilted.
Wojciech Kilar's music, originally scored for a Dracula film, suited most of the ballet's action. The sets, by Michael Helm, were adequate but his lighting did little to enhance the production.